The DMK had also raised this issue in the state assembly sometime back, saying Karunanidhi was a Dravidian stalwart and the tallest leader and deserved the highest honour.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour in the Rajya Sabha, DMK’s Tiruchi Shiva dubbed Karunanidhi the “tallest leader of the country and a Dravidian stalwart”.

“He lived five years short of a century, out of which he contributed 80 years to the public life, fighting for the cause of the downtrodden, backward and the suppressed people.

“He was an outstanding orator, a prolific writer, a novelist, a short-story writer, a philosopher, a philanthropist and also a dramatist. He was an actor and also wrote scripts for 80 movies,” Shiva said enumerating the achievements of Karunanidhi.